FEATURE
STATE OF THE NATION: AUSTRALIA
AND THE NORTHERN TERRITORY
Australia continues to tighten regulations of the
use of e-cigarettes, despite other countries in the
Commonwealth recognising their many benefits.
By Phoebe Fuller
It’s well known that Australia has some of the strictest vaping
laws in the world, but the Australian Government’s unflinching
stance on vaping could be considered especially unusual given
the many similarities – in other respects – between the Oceanic
nation and more lenient Western countries.
A March 9 report by The McKell Institute, co-authored by Australian
vape-advocate Professor Colin Mendelsohn, has called for a
relaxation of vaping laws, backing the e-cigarette as a legitimate
smoking cessation aid.
The ‘Vaping in Australia’ report says that current policy is “increasingly
out of step,” with countries such as New Zealand and the UK declaring
“tobacco harm reduction through vaping is the missing ingredient in
Australia’s tobacco control plan.”
Professor Mendelsohn and co-author Dr Alex Wodak have proposed
legalising nicotine e-liquid sales down under to those over 18. They’ve
also suggested restricted advertising, which avoids marketing to
young people and non-smokers, as well as strict manufacturing
standards and continuing research into the safety of e-liquid flavours.
Though current penalties for breaking nicotine sales laws differ
between states and territories, prohibition of liquid nicotine is
consistent throughout Australia. The country’s Therapeutic Goods
Administration (TGA) considers liquid nicotine a poison and they don’t
seem likely to change their mind about it any time soon.
But such is the demand for non-tobacco-based nicotine that in August
2016, Australian health advocates submitted proposals to the TGA
requesting nicotine concentrations below 3.6 percent be removed
from the Poison Standard. These proposals were rejected, and traders
remain strictly prohibited from selling anything besides zero-nicotine.
The Northern Territory is especially tough on nicotine sales: it’s one
of only three states and territories to include a prison sentence as
punishment for infractions, alongside Tasmania and the Australian
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